Opinions
Future’s continent and African renaissance
Over the last three days since Friday, the issues and the glamorous developments of the African continent have been discussed in a hotel along the magnificent Abant Lake. In addition to experts on Africa from Turkey, academics, journalists and statesmen from different countries on this continent have made presentations and discussed a number of issues […]
No place for excuses!
EKREM DUMANLI Mr. Fethullah Gülen, a well-respected Turkish Islamic scholar, has made a very important statement. He says when we consider that people are endowed with rights and freedoms indiscriminately by God, we understand that no one has the right to introduce prohibitions against certain groups. This principle should be applied to the Kurdish issue. Mr. […]
Better late than never: Gülen’s Kurdish education initiative
Ruşen Çakır* In the Rudaw interview, what Gülen said on education in mother tongue is especially important: “The acceptance in principle of education in mother tongue is the requirement of the state’s being fair to its citizens.” Because of the Gezi Park resistance, several issues of Turkey have been forgotten, left behind in the shade. […]
Abant Platform on Africa
For three days I will be away from Turkey’s increasingly suffocating internal politics. For this reason alone I am grateful to the Journalists and Writers Foundation, organizer of the Abant Platform on Africa. I think this three-day event will, among other things, show us, Turks, that there is a huge world outside Turkey and that we need to […]
Education [for Kurds] in mother tongue
The Wise People Commission has prepared a report on its two months of work and submitted it to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. What does Turkey — east and west — think about the settlement? What are the basic expectations and demands? How will concerns that the country could be partitioned be eliminated? Will Turkey […]
Mr. Gülen’s felicitous advice on Kurdish issue, freedoms
BÜLENT KENEŞ The interview Mr. Fethullah Gülen, a well-respected Turkish-Islamic scholar, gave to Rudaw, an online newspaper in northern Iraq’s Arbil, resounded powerfully in the Turkish media. I must note that it would be wrong to analyze the views Mr. Gülen expressed in this interview within the scope of the developments that have occurred in the wake of […]
A reasonable statement from Fethullah Gülen
The statement made by Fethullah Gülen regarding the choice of the name Yavuz Sultan Selim for the third bridge over the Bosporus that is to be built by the government will certainly enrich the ongoing debate about this issue and will lead to a reconsideration of using this name. The sensitivities of the Islamic segment while evaluating […]
Fethullah Gülen on Islam’s Relationship and Compatibility with Democracy
TAUSEEF AHMAD PARRAY* This article explores the Islam-democracy debate in the thought and writings of one of the prominent living Muslim intellectuals of Turkey, Fethullah Gülen. Born in 1941, Gülen, addresses the hotly debated issues that have gained prominence as they become highly intensified in the post 9/11 world. Fethullah Gülen (b. 1941, Erzurum, Eastern […]
Hizmet: a social movement or political manipulation?
Sadık Çınar* In the last decade, the Hizmet movement has become a phenomenon in Turkish civil and political life. A shallow look from the outside, however, can lead to confusing and contrasting perceptions about the movement when it is only fed by newspaper articles, columnists and rumors. Politicians still think that the only means of political […]
An Armenian from Turkey in Los Angeles (2)
Markar Esayan A major component of Turkey’s official Armenian policy is the demonization of the Armenian diaspora. This component is still alive. The Hizmet movement, which has emerged as Turkey’s representative in the international arena, has been making serious efforts to compensate for the damage done in this regard. I mentioned earlier that I had […]
An Armenian from Turkey in Los Angeles…
Markar Esayan Last week I visited Los Angeles to attend the fourth Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival, held between May 16 and 19. I wanted to write about my impressions before the effects of jet lag took hold and while my memories were still fresh. I was enthusiastic as this was my first visit to […]
We make peace with ourselves as we integrate with the world
BÜLENT KENEŞ — LOS ANGELES Turkey is quickly developing and making sure-footed progress toward a more peaceful and more prosperous future, despite a number of problems and fair criticisms. The greatest irreversible guarantee for the continuation of this progress in the right direction is Turkey’s ever-increasing integration with the world and the international community. The best […]
Fethullah Gülen’s vision – Building bridges in Los Angeles
Yavuz Baydar Heading to Los Angeles, I had good reason to revisit a recent article that my colleague, Dr. Şahin Alpay, wrote for Today’s Zaman. Titled “Why is Fethullah Gülen so influential?” (May 5), it addresses several basic questions about the personality who was chosen by TIME Magazine in its April 29 issue as one […]
Why is Fethullah Gülen so influential?
In addition to his admirers, Gülen has enemies who have obliged him to live in the United States far away from his beloved country since 1999. It is clear that the animosity towards Gülen stems from Kemalist hard-line secularism, which sees in any manifestation of Islam the worst enemy of modernization and wants to exclude religion from all spheres of society.
